CLARK ART INSTITUTE INVITES PUBLIC TO SUMMER EXHIBITION OPENING RECEPTION

May 9, 2019
[Digital image available upon request]

Williamstown, Massachusetts—The Clark Art Institute will hold an opening reception in celebration of its summer exhibitions on Friday, June 7 at 7:30 pm. Visitors will enjoy the opportunity to be among the first to view two special exhibitions: Renoir: The Body, The Senses and Janet Cardiff: The Forty Part Motet. The reception is free and open to the public, but reservations are required. To reserve, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 0524. Light refreshments will be served.

Over the course of his long career, Pierre-Auguste Renoir (French, 1841–1919) continually turned to the human figure for artistic inspiration. The body—particularly the nude—was the defining subject of Renoir’s artistic practice, from his early days as a student copying the old masters in the Louvre to the early twentieth century, when his revolutionary style of painting inspired the masters of modernism. Renoir: The Body, The Senses is the first major exploration of Renoir’s unceasing interest in the human form, and it reconsiders Renoir as a constantly evolving artist whose style moved from Realism into luminous Impressionism, culminating in the modern classicism of his last decades. The exhibition includes some seventy paintings, drawings, pastels, and sculptures by the artist as well as works by his predecessors, contemporaries, and followers.

Canadian artist Janet Cardiff’s acclaimed 2001 sound installation, The Forty Part Motet, deconstructs Thomas Tallis’s sixteenth-century choral work Spem in alium (Hope in any other) by assigning each of the forty voices to a single freestanding speaker in the gallery. Visitors can weave their way through this ring of speakers, coming in close to hear an individual singer’s voice—and even breath—or standing in the center to be struck by the polyphonic force of the whole.

ABOUT THE CLARK

The Clark Art Institute, located in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, is one of a small number of institutions globally that is both an art museum and a center for research, critical discussion, and higher education in the visual arts. Opened in 1955, the Clark houses exceptional European and American paintings and sculpture, extensive collections of master prints and drawings, English silver, and early photography. Acting as convener through its Research and Academic Program, the Clark gathers an international community of scholars to participate in a lively program of conferences, colloquia, and workshops on topics of vital importance to the visual arts. The Clark library, consisting of more than 275,000 volumes, is one of the nation’s premier art history libraries. The Clark also houses and co-sponsors the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art.

The Clark, which has a three-star rating in the Michelin Green Guide, is located at 225 South Street in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Galleries are open Tuesday through Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm; open daily in July and August. Admission is $20; free year-round for Clark members, children 18 and younger, and students with valid ID. Free admission is available through several programs, including First Sundays Free; a local library pass program; EBT Card to Culture; and Blue Star Museums. For more information on these programs and more, visit clarkart.edu or call 413 458 2303.

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